CURL TALK: Hair Care Regimen - Type 4 Hair
The Situation:
A friend of mine asked me to help her with her grand daughter's hair a couple of weeks ago. She was concerned because the grand daughter's hair was very dry and brittle. She explained the difficulty she had making the hair look finished and she just felt the hair was totally unhealthy.
I was delighted she asked because I welcomed the opportunity to provide hair care advice that would help her succeed at managing her grand daughter's hair. So we set an appointment for a consultation. The only thing I knew at this point was the grand child was going in to the sixth grade, she is very active in cheer leading and other sports and she wanted to wear her hair natural. She had worn braids as a protective style but suffered significant hair loss as a result and was wearing her hair tied back from her face with a shoestring in a half head puff.
The Consultation:
My friend her and grand daughter came in for a hair care consultation. I was taken a back by how gorgeous (D) was. She was very energetic and eager to learn as she sat down in my chair with a head full of 4C hair. The Coily Ziggly type.
I began to examine the condition of her hair, which was very dry, yet full with a small amount of spring. Her scalp was tender from wearing braids for an extended period of time, and her ends were in need of a trim. Now many people including hair stylists get nervous when asked to maintain or style this hair type. Not me of course, because I have 4C+ hair myself that I have been wearing in it's natural state for years. So I understand the challenges with this hair type and I knew I would be able to help my friend by teaching her a regimen that will maintain her grand daughter's hair properly.
(D) like many other young girls, is an avid watcher of You Tube. She gets 99.9% of her information about maintaining her natural hair from that source. Needless to say, she was frustrated with her hair because none of the advice she received gave her the results she desired.
* Side Note* You Tube is very entertaining however, I would only recommend taking advice from the licensed professionals that share information on their channels. I am not knocking the self proclaimed natural You Tube gurus, but I prefer to go to the dentist to get my tooth pulled not the chiropractor. IJS :-)
(D) wanted her hair to be soft and curly with no tangles. She also wanted to have a hairstyle that would last for several days and look awesome. So I explained to (D) and her nana that we needed to do the following:
1. Get her hair to a healthy place so it will stay moisturized throughout the day by adhering to a maintenance routine proven to moisturize Type 4 hair types.
2. Develop a styling strategy that will give her a cute style on wash day that will transition into different styles later in the week with little effort.
3. Practice patience. Back in the day when we got our hair to look and feel the way we wanted consistently was called "training". I remember telling clients we had to train their hair to go a certain way. Well that still holds true today. You have to follow a good regimen consistently to achieve the desired results.
The Solution:
Moisture is the key to maintaining curly hair. Not only does properly hydrated hair show curls looking their best, it promotes elasticity and reduces breakage. When you reduce or prevent breakage you will begin to see growth.
The Type 4 hair maintenance routine I recommended for my friend and her grand daughter is as follows:
Make Sunday the wash day/ fun day. This will give the two the opportunity to do a fun bonding activity before, during or after the hair regimen takes place. I explained we included recipe cards with each product to be used during the bonding activity, which they thought was very cool.
1. Cleanse the hair with the Coiled Apple Fritter Cleansing Conditioner. This product is designed to gently cleanse and moisturize the hair at the same time. I recommend the hair be parted into a minimum of 4 sections. Apply the cleansing cream from the ends to the root in small sections, saturating the hair. After the Coiled Apple Fritter Cleansing Conditioner has been applied, massage into the scalp. Cover with plastic cap for at least 10 minutes. (This is a great place to measure out ingredients for the recipe). After 10 minutes, rinse with warm water, pat dry with a towel. Repeat if desired.
2. Deep Condition - Twice per month follow this process. It is important to deep condition the hair to make sure it receives the treatment (nutrients, oils, proteins, reconstructive ingredients). When you process the hair with heat, the cuticle layer opens and stays open which allows the Cinnamon Roll Repair Conditioner to to be absorbed and penetrate the hair shaft to nourish it from the inside out.
A friend of mine asked me to help her with her grand daughter's hair a couple of weeks ago. She was concerned because the grand daughter's hair was very dry and brittle. She explained the difficulty she had making the hair look finished and she just felt the hair was totally unhealthy.
The Consultation:
My friend her and grand daughter came in for a hair care consultation. I was taken a back by how gorgeous (D) was. She was very energetic and eager to learn as she sat down in my chair with a head full of 4C hair. The Coily Ziggly type.
(D) like many other young girls, is an avid watcher of You Tube. She gets 99.9% of her information about maintaining her natural hair from that source. Needless to say, she was frustrated with her hair because none of the advice she received gave her the results she desired.
* Side Note* You Tube is very entertaining however, I would only recommend taking advice from the licensed professionals that share information on their channels. I am not knocking the self proclaimed natural You Tube gurus, but I prefer to go to the dentist to get my tooth pulled not the chiropractor. IJS :-)
(D) wanted her hair to be soft and curly with no tangles. She also wanted to have a hairstyle that would last for several days and look awesome. So I explained to (D) and her nana that we needed to do the following:
1. Get her hair to a healthy place so it will stay moisturized throughout the day by adhering to a maintenance routine proven to moisturize Type 4 hair types.
2. Develop a styling strategy that will give her a cute style on wash day that will transition into different styles later in the week with little effort.
3. Practice patience. Back in the day when we got our hair to look and feel the way we wanted consistently was called "training". I remember telling clients we had to train their hair to go a certain way. Well that still holds true today. You have to follow a good regimen consistently to achieve the desired results.
The Solution:
Moisture is the key to maintaining curly hair. Not only does properly hydrated hair show curls looking their best, it promotes elasticity and reduces breakage. When you reduce or prevent breakage you will begin to see growth.
The Type 4 hair maintenance routine I recommended for my friend and her grand daughter is as follows:
Make Sunday the wash day/ fun day. This will give the two the opportunity to do a fun bonding activity before, during or after the hair regimen takes place. I explained we included recipe cards with each product to be used during the bonding activity, which they thought was very cool.
1. Cleanse the hair with the Coiled Apple Fritter Cleansing Conditioner. This product is designed to gently cleanse and moisturize the hair at the same time. I recommend the hair be parted into a minimum of 4 sections. Apply the cleansing cream from the ends to the root in small sections, saturating the hair. After the Coiled Apple Fritter Cleansing Conditioner has been applied, massage into the scalp. Cover with plastic cap for at least 10 minutes. (This is a great place to measure out ingredients for the recipe). After 10 minutes, rinse with warm water, pat dry with a towel. Repeat if desired.
To deep condition, apply Cinnamon Roll Repair Conditioner to the hair, then massage into the scalp. Cover the hair with a plastic cap and process with heat for 30 minutes. You can use a heating cap, hood dryer or blow dryer with hood attachment for this step. If you have a hair steamer, it will work great as well.
Rinse with cool water to help lay the hair cuticle flat. Pat dry with a towel.
3. Detangle - At this point the hair can be manipulated more because it is hydrated and nourished. It should feel super soft and the curls should spring back when extended. It should be easy to remove any tangles that may be present. If you prepared the recipe of the day before beginning the hair regimen there should be goodies on hand to help make this step more enjoyable. I advised my friend to apply our Blue Berry Muffin Leave In Conditioner to towel dried hair after parting it into four sections. Doing so allows the product to coat all of the hair and make it more manageable. Because (D) has 4C hair, I recommended using fingers to detangle. * Remember detangle 4C hair from the ends toward the roots with your fingers. All other hair types can use a denman brush or detangling comb.
4. Seal and Style - The last step of the hair regimen turned out to be the most important to (D). She wanted a cute style that was shrinkage proof! So I recommended a transitional style. A transitional style is one that starts off with one look and transitions to another look with ease.
To seal the hair, I recommended using our S'mores Styling Puddy. The purpose of sealing is to hold the moisture in the hair. Prior to sealing the hair I wanted to add more moisture, so I applied our Oatmeal Cookie Daily Moisture Masque to her scalp and massaged it in. We agreed on doing flat twists on the front half of the head using the S'mores Styling Puddy. Each twist was secured with a bantu knot similar to the image shown below.
I then used the S'mores Styling Puddy to make two strand twists on the hair in the back of her head. Similar to the picture shown below. This style will hold longer if processed under a hood dryer until dry. Doing so will result in a frizz free twist out.
The style we chose serves two purposes. First it is a cute style that does not change much due to shrinkage. Second it is a set that can be worn for a couple days as is. On the third day, the two strand twists in the back can be taken apart to show off the twist out style. On day five the bantu knots and flat twist can be pulled apart to expose a curly stretched out fro. Day 7 pick a new recipe and start the Wash Day Sunday Funday again.
I hope you will find this information helpful. Please be sure to send us your questions. If you have used our products, please be sure to take the survey you were sent. We need your feedback.
_____________________________________________________________________________
Matrell Hawkins - Contributor
The Curl Shop LLC
 |
| From left to right: Hood Dryer, Heating Caps, Hair Steamer, Heating Bonnet Attachment |
3. Detangle - At this point the hair can be manipulated more because it is hydrated and nourished. It should feel super soft and the curls should spring back when extended. It should be easy to remove any tangles that may be present. If you prepared the recipe of the day before beginning the hair regimen there should be goodies on hand to help make this step more enjoyable. I advised my friend to apply our Blue Berry Muffin Leave In Conditioner to towel dried hair after parting it into four sections. Doing so allows the product to coat all of the hair and make it more manageable. Because (D) has 4C hair, I recommended using fingers to detangle. * Remember detangle 4C hair from the ends toward the roots with your fingers. All other hair types can use a denman brush or detangling comb.
 |
| From left to right: Denman Brush, detangling Comp, Detangling Brush |
4. Seal and Style - The last step of the hair regimen turned out to be the most important to (D). She wanted a cute style that was shrinkage proof! So I recommended a transitional style. A transitional style is one that starts off with one look and transitions to another look with ease.
To seal the hair, I recommended using our S'mores Styling Puddy. The purpose of sealing is to hold the moisture in the hair. Prior to sealing the hair I wanted to add more moisture, so I applied our Oatmeal Cookie Daily Moisture Masque to her scalp and massaged it in. We agreed on doing flat twists on the front half of the head using the S'mores Styling Puddy. Each twist was secured with a bantu knot similar to the image shown below.
I then used the S'mores Styling Puddy to make two strand twists on the hair in the back of her head. Similar to the picture shown below. This style will hold longer if processed under a hood dryer until dry. Doing so will result in a frizz free twist out.
The style we chose serves two purposes. First it is a cute style that does not change much due to shrinkage. Second it is a set that can be worn for a couple days as is. On the third day, the two strand twists in the back can be taken apart to show off the twist out style. On day five the bantu knots and flat twist can be pulled apart to expose a curly stretched out fro. Day 7 pick a new recipe and start the Wash Day Sunday Funday again.
I hope you will find this information helpful. Please be sure to send us your questions. If you have used our products, please be sure to take the survey you were sent. We need your feedback.
_____________________________________________________________________________
Matrell Hawkins - Contributor
The Curl Shop LLC
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